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Erbil, Kurdistan Region – The Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) issued a statement threatening any civilian that leaves the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, northwestern Iraq, will be considered an “apostate” and will consequently be beheaded, and his private property will be confiscated by the group, locals reported on Tuesday.

Speaking to ARA News, a local source from Mosul said (under the condition of anonymity) that the IS militants have provided residents of the city with new instructions over loudspeakers in the military cars and in the city’s mosques, as well as through public posters.

“Now we are under house arrest. Nobody is allowed to leave the city,” he said.

He explained that these warnings came one day after U.S.-led international coalition’s warplanes dropped scraps of paper advising residents to evacuate the city and stay away from the radical group’s locations, especially with the imminent launch of military operations against the group in the city.

A military operation by the Iraqi government forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga is expected in the coming days, aimed at regaining the city of Mosul –which has been under IS control for nearly nine months.

The source also added that the civilians’ living conditions are unbearable, and that unemployment has reached the highest rates in the city, “due to the ongoing restrictions and suppression by the group”.

“All civilians in Mosul have been turned into human shields by the IS terrorists,” he told ARA News.

Noteworthy, the Iraqi central government in Baghdad had announced that they are going launch a military operation in cooperation with the Kurdish Peshmerga and other allies to regain the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a press statement last week that the operation of regaining Mosul has begun.